800 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 6, 1893. 



BOSTON AND MAINE. 



Massachusetts Trout. 



Boston, April 3.— The trout season opened April 1, and 

 tlie day was one of the finest and the mildest of the season. 

 But the weather had been unusually cold, so that the 

 streams in the western and the nortliern part of the State 

 were scarcely clear of ice and were full to the brim, many 

 of them with snow water. Hence but little angling has 

 been done in these waters. Mr. L. Dana Chapman of 

 Dame, Stoddard & Kendall, had two invitations to go 

 trouting in private waters, one in Orange, and the other 

 _down on the Cape. He decided to put off both trips till 

 this week, and then take the one to the stream on the 

 Cape. Mr. E. C. PauU of Taunton, and a member of the 

 Boston Chamber of Commerce, was to try the trout 

 streams in the neighborhood of Cotuit and Fall River. 

 He was informed that one or two trout brooks in that 

 section were well open, but as to his success I have not 

 yet been informed. Gov. Russell is always first and last 

 with the trout, and his success is always marked. With 

 Mr. A. H. Wood, he was early on the ti-out brooks in the 

 neighborhood of Sandwich, and both are reported to 

 have taken seven fine trout. According to a dispatch 

 from Buzzard's Bay that day, thej^ were called upon to 

 witness a far more disagreeable sight than usually comes 

 to the trout fisherman. This was the burning of "The 

 Crow's Nest," actor Joe Jefferson's beautiful cottage at 

 tliat point. They were fishing in the vicinity and seeing 

 the flames, were soon at hand and rendering all the assist- 

 ance possible. Mr. Jefferson himself, a great lower of 

 angling, was absent on a California trip. 



The Gilbert Trout Bill Defeated. 



The Gilbert trout bill was refused a passage in the 

 Massachusetts Senate on Tuesday, by a tie vote of 17 to 

 17. The following day a reconsideration was called for. 

 But the measure was defeated hard and fast by a vote of 

 19 to 16. This ought to end the matter forever, so far as 

 the legislature is concerned. But Mr. Gilbert has an 

 amount of fight in him worthy of a better cause. Now 

 he proposes to test the matter in the courts. He has sold 

 some of his trout to one of his neighbors, Maj. W, W. 

 Cook, doing this the last days of March, before the begin- 

 ning of the open season on trout. On Friday he made a 

 complaint agaiiLst liimself before a magistrate, for selling 

 trout out of season, and has had himseK arrested for the 

 ojffense by Chief of Police Manter of his town. His object 

 is to carry the matter to the Supreme Com-t. Doubtless 

 he expects to overthrow the whole code of fish and game 

 laws in the Bay State. There is scarcelj^ great cause for 

 alarm. Mr. Gilbert's claim is that he has a right to seU 

 trout reared by himself, whenever he pleases. But the 

 Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association con- 

 tends that he has a right to sell his own only in the open 

 season, when everybody else can do the same. This As- 

 sociation contends that it matters not whether a man 

 raises a trout by means of a hook and line, or by means 

 of chopped liver, he must not seU his raised trout in close 

 season. 



Maine Legislature. 



As suggested last week, the Maine Legislature has ad- 

 journed. It has been a peculiar session, of far as fish and 

 game legislation is concerned. Scarcely a measure has 

 been passed that promised to favor non-resident sportsmen, 

 but the one designed to give the non-resident the most 

 trouble, the proposition to charge a license fee, was in- 

 definitely postponed at the last hoims of the session. 



Among the dispatches in regard to the closing acts was 

 one saying that the last bill signed by the Governor was 

 one "prohibiting non-residents from fishing in State 

 watei'S." This news caused sportsmen fond of fishing in 

 Maine no little uneasiness, but a little explanation sets the 

 matter all right. It relates only to seining or fishing for 

 mackerel, menhaden, etc., in "State waters," that is, in 

 bays and harbors within the three-mile limit. The act 

 for protection of fish in B. Pond, in Oxford county, came 

 along. A member from Norway said that aU of the peo- 

 ple in his county were opposed to the measure, and he 

 moved its indefinite postponement. The local fishermen 

 wanted to fish with bait, while the members of the Ox- 

 ford Club, rich sportsmen from Boston, wanted to fisii 

 with the fly only, and they desired to control the actions 

 of citizens of the State. The bill was indefinitely post- 

 poned. This bill was the one petitioned for by Gov. Rus- 

 sell, of Massachusetts, and his friends, members of the Ox- 

 ford Club. The club controls the shores of the jiond. 



The measure permitting sportsmen to send out their 

 game, an amendment of the game laws whereby a man 

 must go with his game and have the same plainly tagg<-'d 

 and marked with the owner's name, was fought for till 

 the closing hours, but the whole matter was finally re- 

 ferred to the next Legislature. Hence the old law must 

 stand for two years at the very least. It is well that it is 

 so, for the permission to "send out game" would open up 

 the Maine forests again to the Boston markets. Another 

 attempt to open September or a part of it, for the shoot- 

 inf of deer, was made late in the session, but was 

 defeated, like the first. Tiie amendment permitting the 

 kflling of one cow moose in a season by any man has be- 

 come a part of the game laws of that State, and so it 

 must stand for two years. This will be time enough to 

 about wipe out the last of the moose. The attempt to 

 further protect partridges or rutted gTouse during Sep- 

 tember utterly failed, as I stated last week. 



Opening Day Luck. 



The Monument Club spent the day among the trout, as 

 its members always intend to do. This club has some 

 fine trout waters in the neighborhood of Monument 

 Beach. Among the names of the members out on the 

 opening day may be mentioned Chas. B. Horton, J. L. 

 Stackpole, Wm." Stackpole and T. W. Bradley. Report 

 says that these gentlemen made good scores. IMr. Mark 

 HollingswOrth, one of the most genial sportsmen on the 

 list, with a friend, went down on the Cape on the open- 

 ino- day. Their score was the best one mentioned yet, 

 betng 86 trout. They do not explain where they went, 

 and they are not to blame if they do not. It was not a 

 preserve that they fished, hoAvever, and their trout were 

 wild trout. Mr. G. W. W^iggin, president of the Massa- 

 chusetts Fish and Game Protective Association, Dr. J. T. 

 Stetson and Mr. H. l^mball were after trout on April 1. 

 They made a good score. They also visited the Cape. 

 The exact locataon they are not AviUing to name and are 

 BOt to blame for keeping mum. 



Monomoy Brant. 



The second squad of the Monomoy Brant Club has re- 

 turned from the club's shooting boxes at Monomoy Beach. 

 This squad had rather poor success, taking but 18 brant in 

 all. The members of the party mention bad weather and 

 unfavorable winds, though they saw a good many brant 

 flying. Other parties mention a point not very far dis- 

 tant from the Monomoy Camps \vliere they have lately 

 killed over 200 brant and some 50 eider ducks. I cannot 

 vouch for the truth of this story, though it comes to me 

 from sources I should not be inclmed to dispute, only say- 

 ing, in the case of error, that my informant was misin- 

 formed. Some of the duck and brant that this party took 

 have found tlieir way into the Boston market. The brant 

 were pronounced "terribly j^oor," and the marketmen say 

 they are good for nothing. The ducks that are now oc- 

 casionally coming into the same market are in very poor 

 flesh. Quite a bunch sold the other day for the great sum 

 of ten cents each. W^hat a chance for a good sermon on 

 spring shooting! 



Metalic Brook. 



Among the private and special laws i^assed by the re- 

 cent Maine Legislature was one closing perpetually 

 Metalic Brook, which flows into Upper Richardson Lake 

 in the vicinity of the Narrows. Tliis brook is one of the 

 great trout nurseries that feed the lake below, one of the 

 best of the Rangeleys. Of late years parties have been in 

 the habit of camping on the brook and taking the small 

 trout by the thousands, in many instances allowing them 

 to spoil. The closing of this brook wifl be a great thing 

 for the trout, and will please everybody but the trout- 

 hogs, who have been in the habit of fishing there. 



Special. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



survived to grow to a pound in weight, at one cent per 

 pound they would be worth over |66,000. Besides, some 

 of the breeding fish would be left to breed again, and 

 some of tlie young would grow to breeding age. This 

 alone is sufficient to shovv that the investment of the 

 money apjsropriated for the work of the Fish Commission 

 is very profitable, and in addition the 800 convictions in 

 two seasons for illegal fishing, which were secured by the 

 Commissioners, tell a story that requires no comment. 



A. N. Cheney, 



Analomink Trout Waters. 



Analomink, Monroe County, Pa., April 8.— The streams 

 in this section are quite high, owing to the melting of the 

 snow, Avhich I am thankful to say is fast disappearing. 

 The fishing season being near at hand I give you ray 

 opinion about the coming season. There were a great 

 many trout to be seen last fall in October and November. 

 The streams were low and the large fish ran to deep 

 water, which, of course, grave the younger ones a chance 

 for their lives. Now, Avith the fry placed in the brooks two 

 years ago and the large fish Avhich wei'e here in the fall 

 and the condition of the streams since NoA'emL)er last be- 

 ing quite high, I think the season Avill be a good one. 



Thos. H. Stites. 



The Printer and the Writer. 

 I AVAS never proud of my handwriting at any period of 

 my life, and the printer and I have a perfect understand- 

 ing about it. He reads what he can and gviesses what the 

 Avords may mean that he cannot read, and I am constantly 

 sm-prised that he proves to be sucli a good guesser. A 

 fcAA^ weeks ago Avhen I wrote in one of my notes in this 

 journal, "common ringed perch," and the printer made it 

 "winged perch," I Avas surprised, not that he made 

 winged out of ringed, for Ave do have flying fish, but 

 that he did not make "common" read celestial, so that aa'c 

 could have had a celestial Avinged perch. I haA^e not 

 kicked when black bass has been printed "beach bass," 

 but I would haA^e kicked had the printer made it basswood 

 bass. I do not object seriously to having "codfish" printed 

 catfish, excej)t that in the instance where the printer made 

 the transformation the statement AA^as true as to codfish 

 and imtrue as to catfish. I do not object to having "both 

 fish"' reconstructed into bait fish, for although it destroyed 

 the sense of the sentence, a reader who is a good guesser 

 would guess that the word "bait'' meant botli. In fact, I 

 Avould not object — Avould not dare object, at anything that 

 the printer might make out of my Avriting as long as he 

 confines himself to what I am supposed to say, but when 

 he monkeys with what I quote some other fellow as say- 

 ing I am obliged to kick, otherwise the other felloAA' 

 Avould tell me nothing more. To the best of my knowl- 

 edge and belief I Avrote: "I asked Mr. Dix if he had 

 seen salmon in the fish way or above it, but he said he had 

 not personally, although his men had seen salmon both in 

 the fishway and in the river above it, Avhen it Avas lii-st 

 built. The flshway being impassable last siunrner the 

 salmon could not get above it." After all, the printer 

 might "prove it on me" that what I did write in Forest 

 AND Stream of March 83 looked more like Avhat he made 

 it than it did like what I intended it. 



"Gen. Hooker" and " B. A. Scott." 

 Mr. E. T. D. Chambers, of Quebec, Can., sent me a 

 few days ago a couple of flies which have been fovind very 

 killing for ouananiche in Lake St. John A\aiters. The fly 

 was the discovery of Mr. B. A. Scott, the Mayor of Rober- 

 val, Quebec, and Avas copied from natural insects found 

 in the stomach of an ouananiche and named after the dis- 

 coverer. I rero-uized the fly at once as being identical 

 Avith one of Mis3 Sara J. McBride's patterns AA'hich she 

 called "Gen. Hooker." Miss McBride gave me her dress- 

 ing of tliis fly (and it must have been nearly twenty 

 ye.irs ago) as foUows: "Body, bright yellow and green, 

 ringed alternately; red hackle (and tins, means chicken 

 red); wings, tad featht'rs of rutted grouse." The curious 

 thing, perhaps, about this fly, Avhicli bears two names, is 

 that^years ajjart two ditt'erent people copied a natural in- 

 sect upon Avhich fish Avere feeding, in one case trout, in 

 the other ouananiche, and made a fly of materials so 

 identical that one cannot be distinguished from the other 

 except in the workmanship of the fly tyer. In each in- 

 stance the natural fly appeared to the eye in the same 

 fashion, and Avas counterfeited Avith the same material, 

 identical in color, and if it is true, as charged, that our 

 artificial flies do not really imitate the natural flies they 

 are supposed to represent," fly tyers do arrive at the same 

 result when acting independently in trying to imitate 

 them. 



The Illinois Fish Commission. 



I have read with considerable interest Mr. Houg-h's 

 commpnts upon Gov. Altgeld"s Avisdom in recommending 

 the abolishment of the Illinois Fish Commission. I do 

 not imagine the Governor aa-AI derive any great satisfac- 

 tion from the comments because they are true, and con- 

 sequently the Chief Executive is shown to have gotten 

 beyond his depth Avhen he rushed into the subject of fish 

 propagation. 1 do not know just how well informed 

 about fishculture angels may be. Mr. Hough Avrites in 

 general terms of the probable value to the State of the 

 Avork of the Fish Commission. In one year the Illinois 

 Fish Commissioners in co-operation Avith the U. S. Fish 

 Commission rescued from the sloughs that Afr. Hough 

 mentions 535,000 fish. Remember that these fish would 

 have been utterly lost except for the work of rescue which 

 resulted in their being planted in waters Avhere they would 

 thrive and multiply. These fish were not helpless fiy, 

 but fish more or less mature, and it was expected that 

 they would spawn the spring following their rescue, for 

 all were spring-spawning fish. Say that only one-quarter 

 of them spawned: they were fish that spaAvn prohficaUy, 

 some 5,000 to 20,000 eggs, others 150,000 to 800,000, still 

 others 100,000 to 600,000, but if the one-quarter of the 

 fish rescued spawned but 500 eggs and one-tenth of these 



Onondaga Anglers. 



Syracuse, N. Y,, March 'il.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 To shoAv your readers and the people of Onondaga corinty 

 that the Anglers' Association mean business for this year, 

 at a meeting of the executive committee on March .37 we 

 passed the following resolution: "That the Association 

 have cards printed to contain a short synopsis of the law; 

 and also that the Association offer a reward of $10 for the 

 arrest and conviction and fiiie of $25 for any man Adolating 

 the law." AVm. Everson, Sec'y. 



Bait-Casting for Bass. 



Meleose, Mass., April 'i.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I desire to urge your interesting correspondent, Mr.Henry 

 G. Abbott, to give your readers through the columns of 

 Forest a^d Stream more information in regard to the 

 art of bait-casting. What is the bestAveight and leng-th 

 of rod? What the best line, how could the cast be best 

 acquired ? If Mr. Abbott Avill aid in regard to these and 

 other points he will confer a favor on at least one. W. 



Iowa Fishways. 



Matlock, Iowa. — Mr. T. J. Griggs, Fish Commissioner 

 of Iowa, called here a foAA^ days ago on his way home 

 Irom the Avestern part of the State Avhere he had been 

 putting in iishways in the Rock and Sioux rivers. He is 

 proving to be "the right man in the right place," as the 

 seiners and spearers are finding out to their aorroAv. Will 

 send you account of fishing trip to Lake Okobo ji in a short 

 time." ITni(« jVIachine. 



New York Trout Season. 



The trout season opened a on Long Island April t, and 

 in Spring Brook Creek, April 1. In Lake George it will 

 open May 1. Elsewhere in the State it Avill open April 15. 

 There is no exception as to SuUiA^an county; the season 

 there aa-UI begin April 15. 



Lake Champlain Black Bass. 



Bv the Vermont la\A's the black bass season in that 

 State (Lake Champlain included) aa-IU not open before 

 June 15. 



Who Wrote This One? 



The J. L. Ikoalbiik Co., Mauufactuiers of the "Peeler" Rasp, Glens 

 Falls, N. Y., \pril ], 1S9.3.— The Forest and Stream Pub, Co., New York 

 City— Dear Sirs: The writer, formerly a subscriber for yoxir paper, 

 has allowed Isusiness to crcwd out all knowledge of you. We own one 

 of the best trout brooks in the State, bought one year since. Almost 

 no trout now. Three dams below — no Iishways. Can Ave have this 

 remedied? Have a copj- of the fish laws, b\it do not know hoAv to 

 apply it. Will you give us a hint in your answers to correspondents 

 and send us a copy. 



We want a san\[ile copy 



Fishing Boots. 



Messes. Sage & Co., of Boston, are enacting the role of public bene- 

 factors ia putting tlieir light-^veight fishing boot on the market. These 

 boots, while strong and serviceable, only w^eigh 41bs, and the change 

 from ordinary foot wear to them is hardly appreciable. Anglers who 

 are accustomed to wade rapid streams all day know how this consid- 

 eration counts, and that the pleasure of a day's spoi-t is often made 

 or marred by a few pounds difference in the weight that has to be 

 carried, and'to all such the Sage boots will prove a boon.— ^dv. 



Sportsmen's Wear. 



E. OcuMPACGH & Sons, of Rochester, advertise athletic and bicycle 

 suits of every description, sent C. O. D. with the privilege of examina- 

 tion. They "also have on the market a first-class, all-wool sweater, 

 that should prove a boon to those who want some warm yet easy-fit- 

 ting dress for shooting, fishing or tramping. — Adv. 



The Hannaf ord Ventilated Boot which Is waterproof, and as warm 

 as any boot made, jirovides a way for the perspiration to escape; at 

 each step tlae f oiU, moist air is forced out of the boot ; when the weight 

 of the body is removed from the compressible sole, fresh air is drawn 

 into the boot. Hundreds testify that these boots can be worn with 

 absolute comfort. No red linings are used.— .4di;. 



lemet 



FIXTURES. 



DOa SHOWS. 



April 4 to 7.— New England Kennel dub, at Boston, Mass. J. W. 

 NewTiian. Sec'y. 



April n to 14.— Continental Kennel Club, at Denver, Col. 



April 19 to 22.— Fifth Annual Dog Show, at Ix)s Angeless, Cal. 0. A. 

 Sumner, Sec'y. 



May 5 to 6.— Pacific Kennel Club, at San Francisco, Cal. Horace W. 

 Orear, Sec'y. 



June 13 to 17.— TVorld's Fair, Chicago. "W. I. Buchanan, Chief Dept. 

 of Agriculture. 

 Sept. 5 to 8.— Hamilton Kennel Club. A. D. Stewart, Sec'y. 

 Sept, 11 to 15.— Toronto, Canada. C. A. Stone. Sec'y. 



FIELD TRIALS. 



Nov. 7.— International Field Trials. AV. B. WeUs, Sec'y, Chatham, 

 Ont. 



Nov, 20.— Eastern Field Trial Clubs Trials, at High Point, N. C. 

 Members' Stake Nov, 16. W. A. Coster, Sec'y. 



